Agility training and related writings about my dogs and myself

Epilepsy Study

This is the form and information for sending in bloodwork for the epilepsy study. Even if you sent a blood sample to UC Davis at an earlier time for this study, they would very much appreciate having new samples. Your sample may or may not have been viable, and since some time has passed since the study began, it would be great if we could get lots of fresh samples out to them as soon as possible.

Sample should be from dogs who have seizures or have been diagnosed with epilepsy.

Allison Ruhe is one of the Researchers involved with the study and you may contact her directly if you have questions.

Like this:

13 responses

Is this study still going on Nancy? I have a dog out of Eyespy that started seizing one year ago. I am looking to get out as much information as possible. The lines are still being bred and more dogs are seizing.

My 10year old border collie Riot has seizures he has had them for 5 years his blood lines are peachy keen lines I didn’t know if you still needed dogs for the study or not. Please let me know I also own his grandson he has never had any seizures so didn’t know if he could help Bering from the same lines nand not having them please let me know if I can help thanks april

There is a great new yahoo group, a group for information sharing purposes only, not breeder bashing or rumor sharing purposes. The group asks that you post your affected dog, the dog’s name, breeder’s name and pedigree if your dog has epilepsy. I have been busy emailing everyone who has ever contacted me with a relative of Fever whose dog has epilepsy and asking them to join the group all evening. If you have a dog who has epilepsy or another, documented hereditary illness, PLEASE join the list. The information will be invaluable to many people looking for puppies in the future.

Greetings, our two year old Border Collie, River, 2, just had his first seizure yesterday. It lasted nearly 8 minutes. Unfortunately, I also have a daughter with seizures (6 different kinds), and he had been evaluated for service dog work with her; that is now out of the question. If you are still looking for samples, we’d like to assist.

Hi, I have a border collie dx with epilepsy at 23 months. I was sent to you forum to read more about your experiences. Can you tell me where to find that info or is it just through out the blog. I am trying to research to buy a new border collie and find epilepsy seems to be everywhere! I also have found several breeders blaming it on envirionment, ….very discouraging. I will definatley check into sending in blood work for the study.
Bonny

I have always been open and vocal about Fever’s epilepsy and I am very happy to see some prominent people in agility being open and vocal about their dogs as well. I hope it educates people a bit more and they do more research and exercise more caution before purchasing puppies so that the people who seemingly refuse to be careful about what they are producing do not have a market.

I have just heard from the owner of one of my Fever’s litter mates. Her bitch is now having seizures. The litter just turned six in October and the dog had her first seizure in September. She has now had three. This is one of several dogs in the last few years that I have heard about starting to have seizures as late as 6 years old. It is a very real shame that people are continuing to breed lines that have proven to produce epilepsy. I hope to get the owner to send blood in for the study and will continue to hope that they find a way to test for epilepsy in the future.

Six years old does not seem to be called “late onset” any longer. And it is certainly frightening that dogs this age are stricken because prior to this time it was thought that the dog was healthy and relatives or even the epileptic dog are kept in breeding programs. We need a test! But in lieu of a test, breeders can make decisions to eliminate dogs from their program that they think could be carriers, or that have relatives that could be carriers. We don’t have to wait for the rocket science to catch up to good old common sense breeding practices.